Page 24 of Ship of Spells


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“That was wonderful, Ensign!” called Echo. “But we need more!”

You’ve been given the map, Thanavar had said.The chimeric will show us the way.

I could find it.

I could find theMarelethan, and theEndorathil, and any other source of chimeric on this side of the Dreadwall.

Maybe even on the far side of it.

For the first time in a decade, maybe we had an advantage in this bloody war.

I took a deep breath, steeled my nerve, and plunged my hand into the water once more.

Colors crackled behind my eyes like lightning across a stormy sky. My ears popped. My teeth chattered. The breath left my chest, and all thoughts left my head. Runes raced from my fingertips to my toes, setting my hair on end and sending my heart to a rate of knots. But once again, chimeric cut through the waters.

“All hands! Sou’sou’east! Follow the line!”

I had been given the map that horrible day when theDawn Watchsank. The map and the key and the compass, all bound up in a salty bluemage named Honor Renn.

“Follow the line, you scurvy gobs!” Smoke’s words echoed above.

Pips and whistles, shouts and bells. With a crack of her sails, theTouchstoneset off to the chase.

6. Dreadships

That initial sense of elation wore off pretty quick, and by afternoon, I was all but spent. My muscles cramped after hours of holding this unnatural position as I clung to the side of a pitching ship. My arms strained in opposite directions, my knees braced against the slippery hull. The suns’ rays reflected from the waters, baking me like a trout on a spit. I was soaked to the bone, and salt crusted along my lashes and lips. But the chimeric still lit in straight lines across the open sea, and I felt stretched along with it, thinner and sharper as we went.

“Ahoy, girl,” came a voice, and wearily, I gazed up. It was Smoke, and in his hand, a tin cup.

“Rum?” I croaked.

“Bells, no,” he said. “You’re Navy! You’d be swinging from this here rope within the hour. Water. Do it right, and you’ll have all the rum you can drink tonight.”

I don’t know why, but I believed him.

He held the cup out and dropped it, keeping his hand wide and fingers taut in a perfectKinestorumspell. Patterns spun, runes sparked, and the cup floated perfectly down to me. I needed to keep my hold on the line, so the cup hovered in mid-air until I could pull my free hand from the ocean’s icy grip. I couldn’t feel my fingers, but the thought of fresh, sweet water running down my throat was a powerful one, and I managed to draw the cup to my cracked lips.

It wasn’t fresh and it certainly wasn’t sweet, but it did feel good going down.

Hours went by, and theTouchstonecoursed on under full sail, following the chimeric that raced through the water ahead of us. At one point, I slipped and slammed into the hull. I’m sure the boards slid out farther to help, and I regained my footing.But I was bone-tired, aching from every joint and muscle, and I don’t remember when they hauled me up and set me in a canvas hammock to sleep away the night. I didn’t get any of that promised rum, and I’m not sure how they managed to wake me the next morning, because the pain was worse than the day before.

In fact, I think I wept as Buck carried me to the rail, gnarled and shaking like a beaten dog. Still, they slipped the rope around my waist and lowered me to the sea, and it was only Thanavar’s scornful face watching me from the deck that forced my blistered fingers into the waters once again.

I wouldn’t let him see me fail. I refused to let that happen.

All that day, I kept to my post, bare feet braced against the hull, with one hand twisted in rope and the other in the sea. It was evening when they hauled me up from my perch. It was dawn when they came for me yet again.

This time, the captain was waiting, the morning suns reflecting the violet and green undercurrents of his hair.

“You are doing it wrong,” he said.

Oh, how I hated him. I could kill him with my eyes.

“You are fighting the ocean,” he said. “And the ocean will win.”

“Please tell me howyouchase chimeric in the open seas.” I lifted my chin.“Sir.”

His lips twitched. I could have sworn it was a smile.